It’s Human Nature

By Daniel L. Gardner.

It’s human nature. It’s also biological nature…if there is such a thing. Eating carbohydrates. The more one eats, the more one wants to eat.

I’ve gone on the Atkins’ Diet several times the past few years. Atkins advocated a high protein diet while eating no to few carbs during the first couple of weeks, and eating very modest levels of carbs as a lifestyle diet.

This diet works…as long as one has the discipline to eat modest levels of carbs, exercises regularly, and does not consume more calories than he/she burns. If, however, one consumes more calories than he/she burns…well, we all know what happens then.

Nutritionists and dieticians have told me the Atkins’ Diet is not good for people. They should know. I’m just another fat guy struggling to maintain a semblance svelte health and vibrancy.

Coincidently, have you noticed that addicts, by nature and definition, generally consume more and more of whatever they’re addicted to, to the point of some kind of demise or breakdown?

Washington has always been addicted to spending. Of course, Democrats are more Bohemian than Republicans, but still both are guilty of spending more of our tax dollars, creating more taxes, and finding ever more clever ways to tell us how much good they are doing for those in need.

Who are those in need, and how exactly is Washington helping them? From Washington’s viewpoint, 50 percent of Americans are not in need, at least in ‘income tax’ language. Half of us pay 97 percent of all income taxes. Doesn’t the other half share any of the burden? Yep. They share by receiving government checks and not paying any income tax. This isn’t an Obama thing. It’s a Washington thing.

In this season of giving and receiving (used to be the season of giving), Americans are once again bombarded with advertisements, mass mailings, and telephone calls urging us to give to those in need. And, we do. Americans are the most generous people on earth. We’re also the wealthiest.

Following the lead of American charities and Americans’ inclinations to support charitable causes, Washington continues to install bureaucracies to facilitate the transfer of charity dollars – aka tax dollars – from those who pay taxes to those who need charity dollars – aka entitlement dollars.

Is there a limit to how much Americans can pay, i.e. transfer, or is America too big to fail?

I would guess most Americans would ridicule the supposition America could fail, particularly at the hands of our own elected government. How preposterous!

Desperate people commit acts of desperation. During summers in high school I worked at the local golf course. One of the workers, a wizened street kid, told me stories of thugs in Memphis who would mug an easy target for as little as $3.

A friend recently told me she had seen such desperate times when her family was hungry and had no food that she was tempted to steal money to feed her family. “Les Miserable’s” American style.

Another told me about a teenaged boy laid off last summer, living with mom, and collecting enough unemployment to cover his truck payments and having a little left over to date and hunt. He’s waiting for just the right job to come along.

I remember times early in our own marriage when the month exceeded the paycheck. Once our pastor ‘accidently dropped’ a $20 bill in our home to help us out.

What happens when that upon which one is dependent ceases? What happens when the government can only issue IOUs, like California? What happened when New York City, indeed all of New York State bankrupted its welfare system (1975)?

Some socialist academics and politicians are actually on record advocating overloading America’s entitlement programs in order to bankrupt America and induce mass, violent uprisings which would transform America into a socialist state, i.e. Washington would guarantee everyone income, food, housing, and healthcare to stabilize the masses.

If we all just share the wealth equally, America is not too big to fail.

It’s human nature. Government spending. The more Washington spends, the more some are entitled.